Beautiful Companion
by Punintentionally Forgetting
Summary: Kanari Rin loves beautiful things. She loves Karakura despite its average-ness, she loves her home despite its mediocrity, and she loves her room, even if it does give off the impression of a preteen girl. But the one thing she loves most is a boy who is both beautiful, a year younger than her, and able to see ghosts. Not that she knows he can see ghosts anyways. OC


**Disclaimer: I do not own anything that is from Bleach. Can you believe that people actually **_**claim**_** to own Bleach? What an asshole.**

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**Warnings: **OC-centric

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**Summary: **Kanari Rin loves beautiful things. She loves Karakura despite its average-ness, she loves her home despite its mediocrity, and she loves love. But the one thing she loves most is a boy who is both beautiful, a year younger than her, and able to see ghosts. Not that she knows he can see ghosts anyways.

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If there was anything Kanari Rin hated, it would be ugly things. Of course, it was only natural, since her surname meant 'pretty'. And it was completely natural for her to hate ugly things – everyone hated ugly things. The only difference between her and everyone was that she tended to take things too far. For example, she hated how piles of trash clashed with the beauty of a setting sun. As a result of that hate, she would risk becoming ugly with sweat and carrying the scent of saltiness and remove the litter from the scene, if only to make everything beautiful again.

She also hated the hideous delinquents that marred their bodies with ugly bruises and split lips and how they purposely bleached and dyed their hair in order to make themselves seem 'badass', and she _especially_ hated the delinquents that think themselves good enough to even _touch_ the object of her affections. It is also hypocritical of her to hate the delinquents when he himself was portrayed as one.

To Rin, Kurosaki Ichigo was beautiful. Sure, it was rude to call men beautiful since it ruined their manliness, but Rin didn't care. All she knew was that Kurosaki was beautiful in many ways, and not just in body, either. Although they are not familiar with each other to warrant first names, the two of them were neighbors and also go to the same school. It just so happened that Rin was given the misfortune of being a year older than him and thus being only able to see him during lunch breaks.

The first time she ever laid eyes on him was when she and her family moved into his neighborhood. Her first thought on Karakura Town was that it was average: meaning it occasionally had its moments of beauty – she especially loved taking to bus to upper Karakura and watching the sunrise. And like Karakura Town, her home was also average, but unlike Karakura, it did not have its moments. Her home was a simple two story house with three bedrooms and two bathrooms, a large kitchen (which she was thankful for), a small living room, and cream colored walls that matched its wooden floors. Her parents loved it, she did not – Rin found the home to be too mediocre for her tastes and was disappointed when she saw how average her bedroom looked when they settled, she had thought her lovely pink furniture would have given the room potential to be beautiful but it simply gave off the feeling that the room belonged to a preteen girl (which she was, but she loved the color pink and felt no shame about it).

Then when her family was finally done with moving, they went to meet their neighbors, the Kurosaki family. Rin, being the twelve year old with high standards on beauty was shocked upon meeting her neighbors. Despite the lack of a woman in the family, Rin found them to be _beautiful_. Not perfect, per say, but they were beautiful nonetheless. She found herself adoring Kurosaki Isshin for simply loving his family with all his being – going as far as to 'communicate' with his wife in order to make up for her loss. She found herself helping the twins Yuzu and Karin with feminine things like how to elbow people who hug you from behind – Karin was a prodigy in that sense and Yuzu was simply too kind to hurt anyone, but Rin felt that even a bit of self defense would help her in a long run. She even found herself with a slight obsession with the family's only son, Kurosaki Ichigo.

He was eleven then, but she loved his bright orange hair, his tan skin, his beautiful eyes that made her shove her face into her pillow and shriek, she loved him very much. His personality was also one she adored. It was gruff and rude, but she knew that he only kept it up as a way to keep his sisters from worrying. Rin didn't know how to describe Ichigo, but the one word that kept coming to mind was 'tsundere'. He was loving and kind to those he cared about, and horrible to those he didn't.

It also didn't help that he didn't find her obsession with beauty bad in the slightest. Sure, he found it weird, but after a moment, he shrugged and replied with a "whatever makes you happy". Meaning that he didn't care about her obsession at all, it made her happy enough to knock on his door early in the morning with a bento of freshly made daifuku*.

Of course, after that day, Rin ended up keeping her distance. Not because she wanted to, but because she was twelve and wanted to do well in school to get into a good university – she refused to grow up to be a ronin* because her parents taught her better than that. So she spent her years attached to her desk at both school and home.

It is not until she is sixteen that she realizes her parents are too busy with work to notice her efforts and that Kurosaki Ichigo is no longer the same boy she met two years ago. In fact, she realizes that Kurosaki Ichigo had bloomed to the point of being the epitome of beauty and that the very sight of him made her go red. She also noticed that Kurosaki Ichigo had the ability to draw unwanted delinquents near him and that he picked many fights often for reasons unknown.

Which leads to the present.

* * *

The way he fights, she notices, is just like his personality; it is gruff and cruel, but never goes as far as to lay permanent injury. His reason is also kind and caring. It was so incredibly tsundere (as she had yet to find a better word to describe him) that she had to resist the urge to screech like a banshee and cry because Kurosaki Ichigo just beat up a group of skateboarding delinquents because they knocked over an offering of flowers for the young girl who was killed in a hit and run.

It is at that point that Ichigo is aware of her and looks her in the eye, ignoring the redness of her face.

"Hey," she accidentally let out a squeak, but waved back anyways. He ignored her again and kept speaking, "Do I know you from somewhere?"

Now, anyone would be offended by that comment because Rin had been living next door to him for over a year, but she briefly recalls leaving after him to school and coming home much later. They are also in different classes and have not communicated since the morning she gave him some of her homemade daifuku, so she finds it all to be quite reasonable. That doesn't mean her heart felt a small pang of sadness because he did not remember her.

But she reintroduces herself anyways. "I'm Kanari Rin; we live right across from each other?"

She was glad that that was all he needed to remind him because he shifted his eyes in an attempt to recall her. "Oh yeah! The daifuku-girl!"

There were worse things to be remembered as, so she didn't push it. She simply nodded and moved her attention to the spilt flower vase. "Did you know her?"

"Her? Not really," he scratched the back of his head sheepishly, "but I thought it'd be nice, you know?"

She did. Because beneath that scowl, she knew he was a kind boy who wanted to be strong. "The flowers are ruined," she points it out because they're not as pretty as they were in the morning. The petals were wrinkled and some had even fallen off when she picked it up.

"Yeah, I'll come around tomorrow with some nicer ones."

"There's no need for that," she says it in such a matter of fact way that Ichigo is surprised and also a bit freaked out when she simply approaches the house around the corner, examines the garden behind the gate, and climbs over it.

"Hey what are you doing? That's trespassing isn't it?"

She ignores his warnings and strides to a white rose bush, picks the best one of the batch, and simply cuts it with a pair of scissors procured from her book bag. She returns to the corner, fixes up the flower vase (which was fortunately not cracked), fills it up with water from her water bottle, and gently clips the rose to the point of which it fits perfectly into the vase and looks beautiful at the same time.

Still ignoring Ichigo's complaints, she smiles in achievement and meets the boy's gaze. "There, it looks prettier now, doesn't it? I think white roses mean something like purity, so we don't have to worry about anything, either."

"What do you mean we don't have to worry about anything? You just trespassed into these people's home to steal a flower!"

She refused to apologize, but pretended to be sorry about it anyways, if only by shifting herself onto one leg and looking the part.

The two of them walked in relative silence for about half the way before Ichigo asked her why he never saw her after the daifuku incident. He scoffed at her reason, but understood why she didn't want to become a ronin. She enjoyed his naiveté because her father was a ronin and he would shove his horrible experiences down her throat disguised as bedtime stories. If anything, she would get the last laugh, because being ranked first in her grade would help her go far – although she needed to find herself a club to be part of to increase her chances.

"You're only a year older than me, but you've been living a pretty boring life," he said, but she countered him with a snort because he had been doing the same.

* * *

Returning home was easy, saying goodbye to Ichigo was a bit harder because she finally managed to spend a whole ten minute walk with him and like hell was she going to ignore him again. It was out of sheer willpower that she was able to break free of his charismatic spell, run to her still pink room, and shove her face into her pillow to squeal. It takes a full minute for her to calm down enough to do homework, but even the book she was reading made her think of Ichigo because she recalled him being a bit of a Shakespeare fan. But because English is not her best subject, she slaves through Act 1 until she is confident that she can both translate and read fluently. Math is simple to her because numbers never changed their meaning and were always true to themselves, so she sped through the assigned pages with ease.

It has been three hours, because she is really bad at English, before Rin remembers her mother is busy working overseas for the next few months and her father is up North in Hokkaido for business. She faintly recalls that her father had a mistress in Hokkaido and would most likely be taking advantage of her mother's work by staying there for the months she is not there. Rin is sixteen years old and is also very independent. Her parents know she will take good care of the house and she can cook better than them.

She takes her dinner upstairs into the solace of her cute bedroom and looks out the window to hear the Kurosaki family once again have a noisy and absolutely delightful dinner. She is jealous of their closeness and also of Yuzu's cooking, but she stays quiet and finishes her food.

* * *

Exactly two days pass before Rin notices something out of the ordinary. It is not really a something, but more of a someone. That someone was a young girl that went by the name of Kuchiki Rukia. Rukia is the same age as Ichigo and she also happens to live in his closet. Upon meeting, Rin pretends to not be freaked out because it might just be some sort of teenage trend going on because she has not had any human contact since her last meeting with Ichigo.

Rukia, she realizes after the shorter girl introduced herself, is overly polite and speaks too formally for regular standards. In the end, the first thing she says can never be erased from her memory.

"The fuck kind of Japanese are you speaking? Izzat some kind of new trend too? Like live in people's closets and speak freaky Japanese?"

The looks on her underclassmen's faces are hilarious, but she takes great pride in surprising Ichigo because his facial structure is godly and ever expression he makes is beautiful. They are surprised because Ran's voice is a tad deeper than most girls and her way of speaking is full of masculinity. In other words, Rin sounds like a boy. She understands Ichigo's shock, because their last meeting was one of the rare occurrences that Rin actually sounds feminine. He also might just be surprised by how informal and stupid she sounded, not like the top ranking student of her grade at all.

"I do not understand what you are talking about," Rukia's smile is tight and Rin can only describe it as the same smile one would see on a doll. Rin does not want to ruin Ichigo's friendship with the new girl, so she lets the subject drop.

"I'm Kanari Rin, second year, and your sempai," she is a bit bored but also notices how lovely Rukia's eyes are, "nice to meet you." She does not tell Rukia that she is Ichigo's neighbor and that her bedroom is parallel to Ichigo's so she can see every little thing when she wakes up because Ichigo never bothered to close the curtains for anything.

She especially does not mention that she spends her mornings watching Ichigo take off his shirt. She is too polite to watch him strip himself of his pants, and also because she saw him do so once and ended up late to school because blood got on her shirt.

Lunch is over a tad too soon because Rin never got the chance to even touch her food, but she eats snacks in class all the time, so eating lunch is not that far of a jump.

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She is wrong, because her teacher confronts her very loudly as she stuffs her face. He is at the very front of the room and his voice echoes out into the hallway because his anger knows no bounds. "Kanari! What do you think you're doing, eating in class? You think that just because you're ranked one you can do whatever you want?"

He rants a bit more on how arrogant she is, but she does not care because she is more concerned with picking up a slice of octopus that keeps escaping her chopsticks. When he demands an explanation, she settles for stabbing the thing.

"Well, Kanari?"

"I'm eating 'cuz I'm hungry. Being ranked one has nothing to do with being hungry. I am not arrogant at all; I just want to eat my lunch. The answer to question number seven is 27x2 + 9x + 3."

She answers the question not because he demanded it of her, but because she was paying attention and knows that she was only caught because she had a slice of octopus in her mouth when he called on her to answer it a whole five minutes before his rant. Her teacher bristles in anger and is about to let out more of his rage, but the bell rings and Rin is done with her food, so she takes walks out of the classroom without any care in the world.

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Her homework is done in record time and when she looks out the window, she can see Rukia eat cup noodles in the closet. Rin is slightly jealous again because Rukia has the opportunity to eat Yuzu's delicious cooking and yet she is eating a cup of cheap noodles, but she crushes the feeling beneath her feet and looks through the school booklet for a club to join. It is not until dark that she hears a loud shrieking sound, but she thinks it to be her imagination and carries on with making dinner for one.

The next few weeks are dull, but Rin is used to the monotony and continues to do things alone like always. While checking over her English homework, Rin notices that her classmates are all excited for Don Kanoji's live show in Karakura. The man's ghost hunting show was the new craze of Karakura town and nearly everyone was going to attend his show, but she is not interested in shows that have men with ugly fashion senses and horrible voices that sound like nails on a chalkboard.

Rukia had joined the trend of "bwahaha-ing" during lunch and Rin feels a bit better about herself for not conforming when Ichigo scolds the shorter girl for it.

"This bwahaha thing," she is quiet and Ichigo barely notices her speaking "is it because they are fans of the show? Or is it because they believe themselves to have a chance to be famous on camera?"

"Who knows, if anything, Don Kanoji's nothing but a hack."

She agrees wholeheartedly, but keeps silent when Rukia hits the orange headed boy.

Rukia is also too polite for her own good, because she smiled sweetly at Rin and invited her to come with Ichigo's family. All while causing harm to Ichigo's beautiful person and completely ignoring his protests of inviting his 'normal' neighbor.

"That depends," Rin found herself saying, "If I have too much homework, I might not be able to make it." In reality, she just wants more time to think about coming and wonders what the cons of having a late dinner would be.

* * *

There are no cons and Rin finds herself sitting right next the Ichigo in the Kurosaki's van. She is gleeful beyond belief and enjoys the scent that is Ichigo because he smells faintly of vanilla, which is ironic because she always imagined him to smell like strawberries like his sisters. She also enjoys the close proximity she has to spend with him because she has never been so close to the love of her life.

Yuzu had taken the front seat and was looking at Rin with her sunny smile, conversing with the older girl. "Rin-san, it's been a long time since we talked! Why didn't you visit us?"

"I was studying," Rin is slightly dazed and high on life because she got to sit next to _Ichigo_, so her words came slow.

"Studying? For two years?"

Ichigo scoffed and joined in on the conversation, "She didn't want to be a ronin – totally stupid if you ask me."

"It's not stupid; it is a legitimate concern for me, okay?"

"That's still not okay!" Yuzu's cheeks are puffed out and she looks angry in a cute way that makes Rin regret not bringing her camera to take pictures of Yuzu's cuteness, "you still have to visit! We're neighbors, Rin-chan!"

Rin is confused because it had only been two minutes and she suddenly went from san to chan. The change in suffixes is strange, but she makes no reason to complain, she quite enjoys it, actually. So she concedes to Yuzu's will and agrees to visit the Kurosaki family for dinner every now and then. Rin silently wonders if she could come over for dinner every night and use her parents' work as an excuse to eat Yuzu's cooking.

Don Kanoji is both uglier and dumber in person, but she quite enjoys seeing the Kurosaki family happy. Isshin, Yuzu, and Rukia form a straight line and actually perform a synchronized laugh while Rin, Ichigo, and Karin stand to the side in embarrassment. In seeing the Kurosaki family so happy, Rin ignores the strange screams and instead puts her attention on her neighbor's smiles because they give her heart a warm feeling.

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Although she is not quite sure how it came to this.

"You have completely ruined this school's reputation! Just what do you have to say for yourselves?"

"Principal," Rin raises her hand meekly because the principle is both terrifying and weird, "I am not quite sure why I am here?" She was in no way involved with whatever happened at the live show. In fact, she isn't quite sure what happened either because she was too busy eating popcorn and watching Isshin and Yuzu as if _they_ were the stars of the show. She faintly recalls Ichigo shouting and getting a good look at his butt as he jumped over the rails, but she turned away when she realized he was doing something illegal and she might be forced to testify against him, so she turned her attention back to Isshin and Yuzu - she could never do such a thing as horrible as _testifying against_ Kurosaki Ichigo.

"You, Kanari," the principle says her name in such a vicious manner that she flinches. The rage of the school principal is much greater than the rage of her math teacher. "You are an upperclassman! You should be setting an example for your underclassmen! It is your responsibility to make sure delinquents like Kurosaki are stopped!"

"But you can't stop beauty."

She stated it in such a matter of fact way that it took a full minute for her to realize what she just said and that she just basically confessed her love to Ichigo in the most hideous setting possible. Both the principal and her underclassmen are shocked beyond belief, and Ichigo's face, despite being godly, was not one she wanted to see.

So out of pure agony, she raises her hands up in dramatic despair and lets out a hideous sob, "I'm sorry I can't help myself! He's just too beautiful!" Another second pasts and Rin wishes she had a filter for her brain so she could actually think before speaking. She is unable to leave the room to cry because it would be rude, but she is glad her underclassman Rukia makes a huge distraction and they are all able to escape. She runs home in record speed and prays no one remembers her confession in the morning.

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The next day, Rin finds herself sick with the summer flu and is confused beyond belief because she does not recall doing anything strenuous to her body. But she calls the school anyways because she is still too embarrassed at yesterday's actions. She then cuddles her cute Chappy the Bunny plushy and falls into a blissful sleep.

Her cold does not diminish until a few days later and she finds enough strength to go grocery shopping. School is already over for the day and the fridge is empty, so she puts on her rollerblades and her safety gear. When she leaves the house, she feels as though she should go back inside because the air is heavy and suffocating. But she is hungry and wants to make herself some takoyaki*, so she forces herself to skate through the tension.

The small grocery shop she frequents is closed for the day due to a celebration and Rin finds herself cutting through the local park to get to a different one.

At least she aimed to do so. She was actually distracted and stopped to stare at Ishida Uryuu. He was one of her other underclassmen and also ranked first of his year, he usually spent his days someplace that was not in public, so she was surprised to see him there. It was more surprising to see him down on one knee in some sort of superhero pose and with a bow and arrow in one knee. The scene frightened her a bit, because she never knew Ishida was an otaku, so she promises to keep his secret safe and takes a different route.

Once she leaves the park, Rin regrets taking a different route because the new one is filled with hills and winding roads that piss her off because not only are they clean and beautiful, but they will without a doubt leave her covered in sweat and out of breath the second she enters the store. But once again, the thought of takoyaki echoes in her head and she forces herself up the hill, careful to not slip and slide backwards into the streets.

Halfway up a particular hill, she is already gasping for breath and she can feel the air thicken. She feels something get caught in her throat and her breath is escaping her, Rin feels faint, but she continues up the hill until she reaches the top. At the top of the hill, she takes a short break, leaning against the side of the sidewalk and catching her breath. She hates the feeling of cold sweat dripping down her back and wants to go back home, but she also wants takoyaki. She really wants takoyaki.

When she gets up and ready to finish the rest of her trek, Rin feels the air thicken to unbearable levels and falls back down. She curls in on herself and a hand reaches for her throat because she can't breathe and she needs to breathe. She is desperate for a single breath, but she can't seem to force her body to listen. It is as though her entire body froze and she fears for herself and curses her love of takoyaki.

There is laughter, it is loud and ferocious and makes her want to scream, but she cannot. The air is still so thick and hard to breathe in that she can't even gather enough oxygen for a shout. It hurts her lungs and she is desperate. Her mind is so full of regret that she doesn't even notice that the laughter has stopped. But when she did, she was frightened beyond belief.

A voice, just as loud and as terrifying as the laugh before, echoed throughout the street and Rin just wants to flee.

"_Oooh lucky me, lucky me! I've finally found a good enough meal! Though I'll have to say you're not up to my standards, but you're one of the only ones with good reiatsu, you get me?"_

She shivers and looks around, she cannot see anyone, only hear the voice that makes her want to hide. Rin doesn't even care if she has to hide in a hideous trashcan or in the mud, she only wants to get away from the voice, get away from whatever it was.

* * *

A minute later, Rin realizes that the air has gotten easier to breathe in. She takes it as her lungs adjusting to it, but makes haste in getting up and skating downhill in desperation.

"_Hey now, just what do you think you're doing? You're my lunch, you see, lunch isn't supposed to run away!"_

Her home was close by and she knew all the shortcuts to it by heart, she does not stop for even a second and ignores all the shouts she receives when she dodges through traffic.

"_I suppose I could play a game of cat and mouse. Very well then, run little mouse! Run!"_

The voice booms from only a few yards behind her and Rin is desperate for escape. Her house is still too far away and she does not think she'll make it. So she takes a left turn to an abandoned construction area. She honestly does not know what she is doing, but she crawls into a large steel pipe and hides inside, her body automatically curls into a ball and she tries to will herself into disappearing.

"_What's this? You stopped running!"_ the voice almost sounds disappointed and Rin's hands move to cover her ears. _"I would have thought you'd run a bit more, give me a bit of a challenge. But oh well! It's time to eat!"_

Her hands do nothing to stop her from hearing her pursuer and she is too scared to look and see who it is. But she keeps her ears covered anyways, if only to give herself a way to cope.

The air thickens again, but unlike last time, Rin can still breathe. The ground shifts and Rin realizes that her pursuer is a massive creature because she can feel it stomp about and around the construction site. She is scared beyond all belief when she feels the stomps come closer and she tries to shrink herself.

_Disappear_, she wants to disappear. She wants to monster to go away and leave her be. For whatever reason the monster wants to eat her to leave her body and let her disappear. But it does not disappear and Rin can feel the monster loom above the pipe. She shrinks into a ball and tries to get smaller and _smaller_, but she can't. Her heart nearly stops when she _feels_ herself being lifted into the air and nearly shrieks when the monster _throws_ her and the pipe. The pipe nearly breaks on collision and Rin feels herself falling out of the pipe and her vision fades to black.

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**Author's Corner and Terms**

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***Daifuku**: Japanese sweet consisting of a small round mochi stuffed with sweet filling. It is commonly stuffed with anko, or red bean paste, but other things like chocolate and fruits work too.

***Ronin**: modern Japanese term for a student who has graduated from middle or high school but failed to make it to the next level

***Takoyaki**: ball shaped Japanese snack that is commonly filled with octopus

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Another Bleach fic has been made, although it's a tad more serious than what I usually write. If you enjoy this type of fic and also have suggestions, leave a review! If you hate what I have written and wish for me to break my fingers so I may no longer type another story ever again, leave a review and maybe we can negotiate. If you think there are too many errors and desperately want to correct my "horrible" writing by becoming my beta, leave a review! If you wish to flame this story beyond all recognition, please remember that you are still leaving a review and are therefore not only yelling at me, but also helping me because no one ever goes through the review section and will only look at the numbers of reviews I have received. Your flames would not only help Rin's math teacher unleash his rage on his pitiful students, but it would ignite people's desires to read a 5k long fic with tons of "reviews". So go on, you flamers, you! And goodnight, goodnight!


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